Political Headaches

It has been an interesting week in politics so far, unsurprising given that the G8 leaders are meeting this week.

I think what has disappointed me the most so far, is the double act of Vladimir Putin and George W Bush doing a Time Warp. I'm not a fan of either of them as I'm sure you are aware... and why should I be - they both authoritarianism in one form or another. However I was a teenager in the days when the Iron Curtain fell, it was a time of great optimism... the world was waking up from a bad dream.

Now it breaks my heart to see two ancient and decrepit dinosaurs who should know by now that extinction is their destiny... and whose time has long gone, attempt to resurrect the rhetoric and dogma of an era which their pathetic species thrived upon. Whichever side you take, I think this missile defence thing can only end in tears.

Neither man can see beyond his own testosterone fuelled inadequacies. It has occurred to me that we live in an age where the landscape of political leadership is literally saturated with examples of bad leadership - be it through weakness, evil, insanity, paranoia, ineptitude... there are many leaders who we would do well to be wary of. I certainly do not trust a significant portion of the G8 group. Bush, Putin, Blair, Sarkozy are all people who I scrutinize intensely... I wouldn't trust any of them as far as they could be thrown. Many other leaders including Ahmadinejad, Mugabe and Kim Jong-il also feature on my "naughty list".

I wonder what you make of Bush's rejection of Angela Merkel's efforts to commit the G8 to cutting carbon emissions? It seems a little childish to me. "We'll only do it if it's our plan". Which is more important? Doing the right thing... or getting the credit?

Having said that, I can certainly understand why Bush might feel the need to get some credit... because his decisions have pretty much left any hopes of a lasting political legacy, pretty bankrupt.

Finally I am bemused, appalled and dismayed at a recent Friend Request on my Myspace account.

For some reason the BNP (link not provided because I don't wish to benefit their cause), feel that I have potential as a future dark apprentice and have tried to recruit me. That's right, I had a friend request from "Keep British Jobs for British people" and it was plastered all over with pictures of Nick Griffin.

Yeah right! The only similarity between myself and him is in our forename! There we part ways... the BNP is about as a authoritarian as they come... and they are racist trash. They would have ethnic minorities driven into the seas of Britain. I would have Griffin and his kind crushed underfoot and cast into the sea themselves.

They are quasi-British. That is to say they think they are British and they represent a certain kind of "bulldog spirit"... but really they preach intolerance and fear. They represent the dark side of Britain - that which we should strive to suppress and eradicate.

There I shall leave things as I realise I am ranting somewhat... and I need to get to home group. I've already gone on too long for me to be able to eat any dinner!

High Noon

This morning I heard an interesting sound.

It was the faint jingle of spurs approaching, as peers from the House of Lords, consider the merits of having a showdown - spaghetti western style with El Presidente Blair and his bandits, as reported in the two BBC reports below:

Peers 'may force terror showdown'
Are Lords out of order on terror?

The peers have twice thrown out proposed Government bills this week, and rightly so. There was a time when I would have looked upon the House of Lords as purely an archaic, self serving institution. At the moment however they are the only form of opposition who are capable of slamming on the brakes of Blair's agenda.

Blair is arguing that he has a mandate to bring in his "jack boot" authoritarian laws because he was elected. This is rather a dubious claim because as the Lords have rightly surmised, the increase in voter apathy, together with the depletion of New Labour seats to both the Tories and Liberal Democrats; is a good indicator that the tide of public opinion over recent months does not give Blair any basis for believing himself to have a "firm mandate". Yes he was elected, but it was nothing to crow about... no matter what his army of spin doctor's tell you.

I don't agree with the curbing of free speech as prescribed by the Blair Camp. I don't agree with biometric ID cards. Even if the Government believe had good intentions with these Laws - the very nature of their wording would make it easy to warp them towards favouring certain points of view in a court of Law. This is the danger of poorly thought out Laws - Civil Case Law always translates them into a beast that they were not intended to be. Regardless of this, I do not believe whoever thought these Bills up, had honourable intentions in mind. If they become Acts, this country will take a firm turn for the worse.

I could go on ad infinitum speaking on ground I have already covered. However, if you want to read further on what my views actually are, here are hyperlinks to several of my previous political blogs, which I strongly urge you to read:

A Disgraceful Law
Oh Happy Day
Tony Blair's Speech
London Bombings
There is a Storm Coming...
The Lord's Debate
Blair "Terror Warning"

I hope they prove elightening.

Regards

N

Oh Happy Day

And so the terror bill is defeated convincingly. My MP actually represented me on this occasion. If you want to know how your MP voted... follow this link:

http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4424170.stm?display=1

I could never support a law that would hold any person without charge for 90 days (or as it should correctly be stated... a quarter of a year).

I cannot believe for one minute if the security services have been monitoring a terrorist network for so long... that once having gained warrant for an arrest, they would need that much extra time to gather enough evidence for a conviction.

I believe the law in total would be used for political rather than security reasons. If an innocent man were held that long they would probably lose their job, reputation and any semblance of a normal life... and they would not get compensation because the police could argue they had sufficient reason to hold them that long at the time of suspicion.

I think 28 days is a sensible compromise for now.

I maintain my insistence that the "War on Terror" is as much about laying the groundwork for an authoritarian ideology... as it is about any genuine threat. The political rhetoric is very similar to that of the Cold War.

If people think this is merely about stopping islamic fundamentalists and eliminating their ability to attack the ideology of the "free" world, then I suggest you look again at the whole mandate of the bill. If you think the ball would stop rolling there.... think again, historically this has never been the case. Did Cromwell stop when the parliamentarians had crushed the royalists in England? No, he went on to wage war in Ireland. Did Hitler stop with Poland? Did he restrict his racial and ideological hatred to jews... no.

When extreme power is given over to a select few people with a specific mandate (however noble), it is normally the case that those individuals expand their mandate so as not to relinquish that power when the need for it is estinguished.

For those thinking this law would have been restricted to a certain group... I offer you this quote which is attributed to Martin Niemoller:

First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out--

because I was not a communist;

Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out--

because I was not a socialist;

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out--

because I was not a trade unionist;

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out--

because I was not a Jew;Then they came for me--

and there was no one left to speak out for me.

Love your neighbour as yourself. Do unto others as you would have it done unto you. These are the principles by which the Christian world is called to live by, in relation to the rest of humanity... and we should live by them and if necessary... die by them.

What are people's thoughts on the whole subject?